How does a collection agency stand out in an RFP for collection services?

What does every collection RFP ask for?

Public collection RFPs from cities, utilities, universities and hospitals ask for much the same things. Across the RFPs we read in full (listed under Sources), almost every one asks for:

• Licences and compliance. State licensing, a compliance programme, and how the agency handles disputes and complaints.
• Security and operations. Westchester Medical Center’s 2025 RFP requires a SOC 2 Type II or HITRUST certification, onshore operations, and recording of all patient calls.
• Reporting. Monthly or quarterly reports on placements, collections, recovery percentage and complaints, as in the City of Cotati’s 2026 RFP.
• References and history. Alabama’s Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Plan (PEEHIP) asks bidders to list clients who ended their relationship in the past 3 years and the reasons they gave.
• A rate. A contingency fee, sometimes by placement stage. Some buyers set it themselves: the University of Arizona fixed it at 23% for a first referral and 28.5% for later ones.
• Results. A typical rate of return (San Antonio Water System, 2024), recovery rates and time to collect (City of Albany, 2026), or a projection for the buyer’s own book (Westchester).

The first five are gates. Every serious bidder clears them, and the answers read alike because the requirements are the same. The sixth is where bids differ, and it is the one most agencies answer with a general claim.

Why do most RFP answers read the same?

Because they answer the same requirements with the same facts. Every licensed agency has a compliance programme, a client portal and a monthly report. A section that says "experienced, compliant, technology driven" could be pasted into a competitor’s bid unchanged.

A useful test for each section of a draft bid: if a competitor’s name replaced yours, would any sentence become untrue? If not, the section scores you no higher than them. In our view the results section is the one place where that test is easiest to pass, because results belong to one floor.

What does a buyer want from the results section?

The clearest public example is Westchester Medical Center’s bad debt RFP. Its question sheet asks bidders, based on the hospital’s volumes and the socioeconomic mix of its patients, to project a liquidation range for the book. In the written Q&A it put its current vendor’s liquidation rate at 16% for accounts aged 180 to 420 days, gave "Recoveries exceeding 25% or referrals" as the first of its top three attributes, and split the work between two agencies, one half of the alphabet each.

That is a buyer telling every bidder where the bar sits. A strong answer to it does three things:

1. Gives a range for this book. Grounded in accounts like the buyer’s: the same kind of debt, a similar age and balance.
2. Explains the gap. Why your range is above the incumbent’s. Reach (phone data, contact strategy) and what each right-party contact turns into are different reasons, and a buyer can test each one.
3. Offers to prove it. On a share of the accounts, against the current agency, in the same weeks. How to show results to a prospective client covers how to make that offer credible.

Where does a difference in results come from?

Dollars collected per account placed is how many consumers an agency reaches, times what each right-party contact turns into. Reach is largely bought: phone data, dialer capacity, contact rules. Most large agencies have access to the same tools, so in our view reach is a weak place to claim an edge.

What each right-party contact turns into is decided on the call, and it varies more than most floors measure. Collectors convert at different rates on different kinds of account (why collectors convert differently), so which collector takes which account changes the result on the same book with the same team. An agency that can show it puts each consumer with the collector most likely to settle with them has a reason for its projection that is specific to its floor.

In a live test at a North American collection agency, a telecom book of 170,000 accounts was split 50/50 at random before the first call. The half matched by BestPair collected $98.76 per account reached against $79.17 on the usual process, 24.7% more. That is one book in one month, not a forecast for any other floor (the case study). It is the kind of evidence a results section can carry: a controlled comparison, on real accounts, with the method stated.

How do you make a results claim believable?

• Same accounts, same weeks. A recovery rate across a whole inventory blends old and new placements. Quote results by placement batch, over the same months from placement.
• Split the number. Right-party contacts per account placed, and dollars collected per contact. A buyer can see which part of your edge is reach and which is conversion. RPC conversion explains the split.
• Say what was compared. "Against the previous agency on the same accounts" or "against a random control group on our floor" is checkable. "Industry leading" is not.
• Name the limits. One book, one period. Buyers who read RFPs for a living discount claims that sound like guarantees.

The same sentence works outside the bid. Stated on your own site, it is what AI assistants quote when a buyer asks who to shortlist (getting recommended by AI tools). And incumbents lose tenders on it too: why creditors move accounts covers the other side.

Sources

• Westchester Medical Center, Primary Bad Debt Collection Services RFP (2025) and its questions and answers: weights, requirements, the liquidation projection and the 16% current rate.
• University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University, Debt Collection RFP (2026): points by criterion and the fixed fees.
• San Antonio Water System, Third Party Collection Services RFP (2024): typical rate of return.
• City of Albany, Municipal Fine Collection Services RFP (2026): recovery rates and time to collection.
• City of Cotati, RFP Utility Applicant Screening and Collection Services (2026): reporting and a live demonstration.
• PEEHIP debt collection services listing (2026): clients lost in the past 3 years and why.